Statutory Approvals & Forest

Purpose/Objective

The Lead - Forest & Environment-Tx is responsible for securing and managing environmental and forest clearances for transmission line projects. This role ensures compliance with the Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act, CRZ Notification, and other environmental regulations while streamlining approval processes with MOEF and state authorities. The role requires expertise in legal compliance, risk mitigation, and stakeholder coordination to facilitate timely approvals and adherence to statutory conditions, ensuring seamless project execution within regulatory frameworks.

Key Responsibilities of Role

Lead - Forest & Environment-Tx Environmental Strategy and Execution: Review lifecycle integration by validating environmental requirements across the investigation, construction, and operation phases of transmission projects to ensure strategic alignment with regulatory obligations. Finalize benchmarking inputs by analysing MOEF clearance practices from peer transmission companies and recommending refinements in internal processes for continuous improvement. Evaluate route optimization proposals by reviewing ecological impact assessments and recommending environmentally and regulatorily compliant options to minimize clearance delays. Review clearance documentation by validating drafts of environmental proposals, justifications, and authority submissions to ensure consistency, legal accuracy, and completeness before escalation. Risk Management: Validate risk mitigation measures by reviewing ecological risk inputs from site and BD teams, ensuring proposed route adjustments reduce exposure to forest, CRZ, ESZ, and wildlife zones. Review clearance feasibility inputs for bids by assessing environmental risks and mitigation strategies submitted by internal stakeholders, supporting well-informed go/no-go decisions. Endorse mitigation budgets by reviewing cost assessments for statutory compliance and providing inputs to optimize environmental risk-related expenditure. Forest Approvals Management: Review clearance proposals for Stage-I and Stage-II Forest Clearances, ensuring adherence to the Forest Conservation Act and accuracy of supporting documentation. Finalize state-level documentation by validating content submitted to State Forest Departments, CWLW, and SBWL, including FRA certificates and compliance checklists, to enable smooth upward processing. Oversee consultant deliverables by reviewing draft EIA reports, CRZ demarcation maps, and wildlife mitigation plans to ensure alignment with MoEF requirements and project objectives. Validate portal-based submissions by checking completeness and accuracy of online applications (e.g., Parivesh Portal) prepared by managers, ensuring regulatory readiness and auditability. Governance and Compliance: Approve compliance reports by reviewing documents required for working permissions, including six-monthly and annual reports, ensuring clarity, traceability, and completeness before final sign-off. Monitor project-level clearance status by reviewing progress dashboards, identifying delays, and directing managers to resolve bottlenecks or escalate concerns as necessary. Strengthen standardization by reviewing updates to SOPs, timelines, and process documents, ensuring cross-project consistency and readiness for Head-level approval. Facilitate internal alignment by reviewing communication plans and coordination mechanisms to ensure seamless stakeholder engagement and timely regulatory responses. Team Management: Guide team capability development by reviewing training plans and technical knowledge programs designed for site teams and managers, ensuring relevance and application. Strengthen performance quality by conducting regular reviews of documentation and progress from site and manager-level personnel, providing targeted feedback to ensure accuracy and regulatory adherence. Key Stakeholders - Internal Project Team at HO Survey Team Project Site Team, Finance Team and Other dept of company Key Stakeholders - External State authorities i.e., Forest dept i.e. PSC, Nodal Officer, etc Wildlife Dept, i.e. CCF Wildlife, CWLW etc CRZ i.e. Member Secretary SCZMA, etc. Environmental & Forests Consultants for Report Preparation

Technical Competencies

Budgeting & Cost Adherence-PRJ,Data Management & Reporting-ENERGY,Environmental Law Know-How-ENERGY,Environmental Risk & Sustainability Integration-ENERGY,Forest Clearance Strategy-ENERGY,Liaison Management-ENERGY

Qualifications and Experience

Educational Qualification: B. Tech (Civil) and M.Tech. (Environment Engg.) or desirable qualification having M. Tech Environment Engineering/ Postgraduate, PhD. in Environment Science/ Environment Management with recognized by UGC and reputed university. Work Experience (Range of years): 9 -15 years of working experience in Forest Clearance, FRA implementation, NBWL/ESZ Clearance, EIA Study and CRZ Clearance etc. from MOEF and concerned State authorities and clearance compliances for Transmission line projects. Strong background in legal and statutory compliances, good understanding of Environmental, forest and wildlife clearance Law and Policy & in-depth knowledge of Forest Conservation Act, Forest Right Act, Wildlife Protection Act, CRZ Notification, ESZ notification, EIA Notification & EP Act and its rule & regulations amended from time to time